Mike Dillon and John Heap, as members of the Board of the World Confederation of Productivity Science, invite you to attend the 19th World Productivity Congress which will be held in Chengdu, China on September 21-23, 2019. As our planning continues we will be forwarding additional information.

The overarching theme of the event is..

Innovation Driving World Productivity Development.

and key areas of focus will include:

(1) The Impetus of Innovation and World Productivity Development;

(2) China’s Economic Transformation and Upgrading and World Economic Recovery;

(3) The Construction and Development of the One Belt-One Road Productivity Drive

(4) A New Path to Higher Productivity;

(5) Free Trade Zones; and

(6) The Construction of Innovative Cities and the Promotion of International Influence.

One of the key topics within the New Path to Higher Productivity will include a focus on the Collective Sharing of resources, knowledge and technology within and between nations. We will address the forces that impede and accelerate our ability to achieve effective sharing as an enabler of innovation and productivity improvement.

Chengdu is an exciting city with many attractions. If you have traveled to China in the past, you are well aware of the dynamism of this global power. If you have never traveled to China, it is certainly time to learn more about the challenges and opportunities this nation offers to the world.

Please place these dates in your calendar.

Plan to arrive early and/or remain after the Congress to experience more of the wonders of China and the region.

IoP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with City of Glasgow College on study visits on productivity by international students.

Daniel Khan with representatives of City of Glasgow College

Daniel Khan was a keynote speaker at an International Conference on Productivity & Sustainability in Bangalore, India.

Below are photos from the event including (middle photo) Daniel with Dominic McAllister, British Deputy High Commissioner and Dr. Bhargavi from Seshadripuram College in Bangalore.

Daniel Khan, COO of IoP, has been appointed as visiting professor and member of the Management Board at Srinivas University in Mangalore, India.

Daniel Khan (left) with Mr Rao, Chairman of the Board, Srinivas University and Dr Aithal, Vice-Chancellor.

January 2019

Mike Dillon and John Heap went to Poznan, Poland for discussions relating to educational courses and projects around the topic of logistics and supply chains.

Mike and John with representatives of the School of Logistics, Poznan.

December 2018

Prof. Daniel Khan was an Expert Speaker during the Second International Programme on Students' Satellite Mission 2022, an India-Israel initiative under the auspices of the International Activities of the Indian Technology Congress Association (ITCA). ITCA was successful in putting together an exceptional event, the Second International Programme on Students' Satellite Mission 2022 with participation by over 110 Delegates and Participants from 28 Institutions; 37 speakers across 7 sessions over two days.

September 2018

The Institute of Productivity was a supporter of the Indian Technology Congress in Bangalore. Daniel Khan, COO of IoP attended to participate and to hold discussions with a number of potential partners. Gautham Balasubramanya, IoP's chief representative in India, was a key member of the organising team.

Daniel Khan (right) at the Congress

The Institute of Productivity has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with The NISAI Group to work jointly on ESOL programmes, Apprenticeship delivery and International study programmes and study visits to the UK.

Both organisations have been working together for sometime and have now decided to formalise the relationship and bring together their extensive experience in the design, delivery and support of online learning programmes.

Mr Dhruv Patel Group Chief Executive of Nisai stated that this is an exciting development as combining the resources of Nisai and IoP will extend the reach of innovative, quality eLearning to a wider range of students and businesses .The range of expertise on offer bodes well for the UK in the post Brexit era for International Education and Trade .This is also good news for UK companies as competitiveness will be built into new courses now being developed.

Dr Mike Dillon, Chief Executive of the Institute of Productivity stated that the two organisations offer a unique combination. IoP’s Global reputation is built on working with International Governments on capacity building and human resource development as well as significant work with UK companies, building capacity and supporting continuous improvement. IoP has also developed significant online learning to support accredited qualifications relating to productivity and performance development.

This experience can now support a greater variety of learners through Nisai’s Unique on line, real time learning, which is already enrolling hundreds of students in the UK and globally .

July 2018

IoP is supporting the India Technology Congress 2018 in Bengaluru (September 2018). Prof Daniel Khan, COO of IoP signed an agreement with Dr. LV Muralikrishna Reddy of ITCA (India) to collaborate on the event and on a range of other issues.

Prof Khan and Dr Reddy complete an agreement for mutual cooperation between IoP and ITCS.

May 2018

We are pleased to announce that Derek Walker, Master Butcher will be joining the IoP team.

April 2018

Mike Dillon, CEO of IoP, is in Indonesia working with companies on Continuous Improvement (CI) activities, using students as interns working in-house on CI projects.

Mike Dillon and an intern lead a factory kaizen team review of a cause and effect analysis of low cycle time freezing within the fish processing sector.

March 2018

IOP Hosts Senior Government Officials at their new Training & Consultancy Centre in Telegraph House, as part of a UK wide Study Tour focussing on Market Access and Post BREXIT Trade options

IOP has been leading an Added Value Safe Supply programme in Bangladesh with 200,000 farmers under a Safe Code of Productive Practise, created by IOP and the Bangladesh country team. They connected supply chains successfully to Walmart and Tesco as well as main markets.

The delegation of Senior Government officials have been hosted in the UK by IOP, led by CEO, Mike Dillon during a week-long study tour, which has included visits to London-Heathrow's Import Team, New Spitalfields Market, FERA Science Lab in York, and Immingham Docks, as well as talks and presentations from senior DEFRA Plant Health officials, and policy heads, followed by a visit to the IOP office in Grimsby to review future project options.

Speaking at the Telegraph House in Grimsby, Mike Dillon said, “We expect this to be one of many study tours organised in partnership with our offices in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Middle East, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Our international CEO, Professor Khan, is actively building IOP networks overseas. We look forward to hosting more senior government officials and coordinating company visits to our new training and consultancy centre here”

IoP is organising a study tour for a group from Bangladesh interested in improving trade with the UK, and in improving the productivity of Bangladeshi agriculture.

The group from Bangladesh at Heathrow airport discussing logistics issues.

January 2018

IoP has moved into its new offices in Telegraph House, in Grimsby. Our old offices were starting to 'feel the pinch' and our growing team needed a little more room to spread its wings (and its documents). The new offices are bright (with a good view over the Humber), spacious, well-appointed and well-located. All we need now is for our broadband to work.

Iop offices in Telegraph House, Grimsby

December 2017

The Asia-Pacific Executives Forum was recently held at the Hilton, Colombo, Sri Lanka with the participation of important dignitaries and the focus of the forum was on strategic development projects in Sri Lanka and promoting them globally.

Jordanian financier and Forbes magazine’s one of the 100 powerful Arab businesswomen in year 2016 and 2017 Iman Mutlaq and Prof. Daniel Khan (COO of IoP) gave the keynote addresses while the forum was moderated by American Academy of Project Management (AAPM) Country Representative Rajkumar Kanagasingam.

Mike Dillon, CEO of IoP, has been working in Indonesia on a project introducing productivity tools and techniques (and associated measures) directly into factories, working with local kaizen teams, trained and facilitated by IoP.

Mike Dillon leads teams through an entire project.

October 2017

The Institute of Productivity is just completing a project in Bangladesh in which 65,000 farmers have been trained in a productivity-based code of practice (devised by IoP) linked to the international GAP (Good Agricultural Practice) standard. During the project, IoP has benchmarked yield from farms to demonstrate that use of the code does indeed increase farm productivity.

John Heap (Managing Director of IoP), Daniel Khan (Chief Operating Officer) and Alex Friar(Projects Officer) all presented papers at the World Productivity Congress in Bahrain, cementing IoP's position as a major contributor to productivity development, and a major influence on policy and practice internationally.

John Heap presenting an award to the Deputy Prime Minister of Bahrain.

March 2016

Mike Dillon, CEO of IoP, was in Indonesia working with UNIDO on a project to improve the productivity of SMEs involved in fisheries and seaweed production.

Mike Dillon, seated centre, with delegates at a workshop for SMEs on Improving Business Operations.

John Heap, MD of IoP, was in Bahrain chairing a Board meeting of the World Confederation of Productivity Science, discussing the forthcoming World Productivity Congress (November 27-30, 2016. See www.worldproductivitycongress.net for details.

John Heap with Dr Akbar Jaffari (left) and Ebrahim Radhi, of JAFCON - the local organising host for the World Productivity Congress.

October 2015

John Heap, MD of IoP, gave a keynote presentation at the World Productivity Congress in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on " Bigger Data, Smarter Business, Richer Society".

August 2015

IoP has now finished delivering the series of courses to TUC Learning Officers that will see them awarded a Certificate in The Management of Productivity. The last course was on budgeting....

... and thanks, Marie - for the cake.

John Heap, Managing Director of IoP, will be a keynote speaker at the World Productivity Congress/ Big Data Congress in Halifax, Nova Scotia in October. Full details are available at www.bigdatacongress.net and a brochure talking about the business benefits of Big data is available here.

July 2015

As part of its work in Bangladesh, IoP is benchmarking the improved performance of the small farms it is supporting. Interestingly, so far, the best performing farms are those managed by women. (No, we're not surprised either!)

IoP CEO, Mike Dillon at a benchmarking report meeting in Bangladesh.

June 2015

IoP is continuing to deliver the Diploma in The Management of Productivity program to TUC Learning Officers. June saw the officers studying Strategic Planning, involving group exercises to look at strategic opportunities in their own fields of work.

IoP has been advising FAO on how to instil food safety practices throughout an agricultural supply chain - and has designed a series of training courses at different levels to make this work. To take this through to a successful outcome, IoP has supervised the first shipments of Mangoes from Bangladesh to ASDA (WalMart) in the UK. Workers throughout the supply chain have been trained in good practice and all stages have been inspected to ensure that that good practice was maintained. The supply chain included the following post-harvest practices to ensure quality/shelflife:

transport at a 'cool' temperature (15-20 deg C)

desapping of the mangoes by inversion

washing of mangoes in clean water

hot water treatment at 48 Deg C for 5 minutes

strorage of mangoes at 20 Deg C before shipment

perforartion of the polyethylene cover of the carton boxes to increase ventilation.

May 2015

John Heap, MD of IoP, chaired the Board meeting of the World Confederation of Productivity Science in New York, where the Board finalised details for the World Productivity Congress on Big Data, scheduled for Halifax, Nova Scotia in October... and took the decision to hold the next Congress in 23016 in Bahrain.

Board (not bored) in Leiden

John Heap, MD of IoP, presided over the Board meeting of the European Association of National Productivity Centres in Leiden, Netherlands.

John Heap with members of the EANPC board and Secretariat.

April 2015

Back in Bangladesh

Mike Dillon, CEO of IoP, is back in Bangladesh working on the FAO-sponsored project to improve food safety amongst local fishermen and farmers.

Mike Dillon with a group of fish farmers

February 2015

IoP's new Diploma in The Management of Productivity

For some time, IoP has been working to build a new, modular Level 4 Diploma Course - registered with OFQUAL and accredited by NOCN. The course has been taken up by the TUC and the first cohort of union officers recently attended the first module on Project Planning & Control.

Delegates participate in a range of interactive exercises

John Heap, MD of IoP, with delegates on the first unit of the new Diploma course being run on behalf of the TUC

Mike Dillon, CEO of IoP, is back in Bangladesh working with the Master Trainers in Food Control, trained in December (see December News) to cascade training to a large number of Lead Trainers who will prepare for a mass rollout of Food Safety training.

The training of these Lead Trainers is highly visual,
highly interactive - and uses tools, techniques and
technologies appropriate to the Bangladeshi context.

John Heap, Managing Director of IoP, is to be a keynote speaker at the World Productivity/Big Data Congress in October, 2015 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Click on the Congress logo below for more information.

December 2014

Mike Dillon, CEO of IoP, is continuing his work in Bangladesh preparing individuals from three sectors (crops, fisheries and poultry) to become Master Trainers in Food Control. In leading the programme, Mike stressed that the most effective way in which local and international food supply organisations and agencies can improve food control is to design and build in good practice; this is much more effective than attempting to use third party control agencies to 'inspect in' quality. An important part of the overall project is to assess both the food safety and the business impact of the training over the next year.

A group of delegates visit the local market
to analyse control processes

A leading poultry expert discusses the
benefits of food control; the group then
identify the business benefits

November 2014

Mike Dillon, CEO of IoP, is in Bangladesh delivering a Certified Programme for Master Trainers in Food Control. The course is sponsored by the FAO (Food & Agriculture Office of the United Nations) and has been designed by IoP in partnership with NOCN, one of the UK's leading Awarding Bodies. The groups being prepared for Master Trainer status come from the Crops, Fisheries and Poultry sectors.

John Heap, Managing Director of IoP, attended the Board meeting of the World Confederation of Productivity Science - in his role as President of the Confederation. Mike Dillon, who is also a member of the Board of WCPS, was unable to attend due to other commitments but did participate in the meeting via teleconference.

The main business of the meeting was to discuss arrangements for the World Productivity Congress, due to be held in Canada in October, 2015. WCPS expects to make a formal announcement about the event in the next few weeks and, of course, we will bring you the news here.

October 2014

John Heap, Managing Director of IoP, gave a presentation on "The Impact of Psychosocial Factors on Productivity" at a European seminar in Vicenza, Italy hosted by the Centro Produttivita Veneto.

John made the point that there is very little peer-reviewed research that establishes any direct causal relationship between the way in which an organisation addresses the psychosocial well-being of its workforce and the performance of the organisation. John went on to to identify the (positive) performance impact of pyschosocial factors - but based on his personal experience rather than on firm 'evidence'.

September 2014

Mike Dillon, CEO of IoP, is working on a FAO programme improving food safety and security in Bangladesh.

Whilst Mike was in Bangladesh, 30 project directors and funders - including representatives from The Netherlands, America and the World Bank attended an IoP presentation on how to roll out GAP (and other such standards) to 15 million farms. We hope to see our ideas and methodology adopted in some major projects over the next few years.

August 2014

Mike Dillon, CEO of IoP, has been in Indonesia advising on productivity improvement in the seafood sector. Indonesia, for example, is the world's largest producer of seaweed ... but receives a very low price compared to many of their competitors. Mike has particular - and recent - experience with the issues surrounding the use of seaweed as the basis of food products, as this is an area that IoP has been researching. We hope to be able to use some of this recent experience to help Indonesia move up the value chain.

Mike Dillon gave a presentation on productivity improvement

to, and for, the Indonesian seafood sector

Whilst in Indonesia, Mike has also been in discussions with an Indonesian University with a view to IoP helping them establish a productivity-based post-graduate programme.

John Heap, MD of IoP, has been in Mauritius as advisor to the National Productivity & Competitiveness Council. On this visit he has been involved in a number of projects involving support for SMEs - including one supporting small women-only cooperatives.

While there John gave a keynote presentation at a Board meeting of PAPA - the Pan-African Productivity Association. (See the IoP blog for further information).

John with members of the Board

of the Pan African Productivity Association

John also attended a workshop with Robert Kaplan - of Balanced Scorecard Fame - and was pleased to see a 'meeting of minds' on the strategic value of measurement. The Balanced Scorecard has evolved over time into a strategy support device, helping organisations plan, execute, monitor and evaluate strategic options. IoP's use of Key & Critical Performance Indicators performs the same function.

John with Robert Kaplan (left) and Kevin Chuttur,

Chairman of the National Productivity & Competitiveness

Council of Mauritius.

May 2014

Mike Dillon, CEO of IoP, is currently working with FAO in improving performance in specific value chains in Bangladesh. These include crops - specifically mango, potato , tomato and brinjal.

Mike also visited Mauritius where are working with the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) driving the development of productivity-related education programmes, The first photo shows Mike with the NPCC team and the second shows him passing over the first completed training course to Dev Appalswamy, Head of Training & Corporate services at NPCC.

IoP has established a partnership with Global Learning to deliver a series of innovative, educational courses in Pakistan.

April 2014

IoP worked with UNIDO to develop and deliver a Master Training Programme in Pakistan, designed to assist the government in creating income improvement in fish supply chains.

John Heap, Managing Director of IoP, was the moderator for a session on the theme of Innovation, Productivity, Excellence and Sustainability at the European Management Conference in Athens in April 2014.

March 2014

John Heap, Managing Director of IoP gave the keynote presentation at Avant Garde 2014, a global conference on paradigm shifts in management and education, in Bangalore, India on March 19th. John’s presentation was entitled “What’s Wrong with the Paradigm We’ve Got”.